As I continue this little series on humor, I am reminded of the beauty of laughter.  My three year old son went into peals of laughter as I was trying to put him to bed.  "Tuck, tuck," is a tradition that has been handed down over a few generations.  I usually can tuck the blankets in around him until he looks a little like a caterpillar in a cocoon.  Tonight he had the giggles.  Every time I touched him, he would get this wide smile on his face. "Mommy, you're tickling me." What fun it was to put him to bed tonight.

5) Humor shows courage
St. Lawrence showed his courage to his torturers during his martyrdom by saying, "I'm done on this side." It was both a pointed challenge to his executioners and a bold profession of faith.  Similarly, in the 16th century St. Thomas more, the onetime chancellor of England who had refused to accede to King Henry's requests to recognize the king's divorce, was sentenced to death. As he climbed the steps to his beheading, he said to his executioner, "See me safe up; for in my coming down I can shift for myself." This type of wit shows profound courage and conveys deep theological truth.  It says, "I do not fear death," and "I believe in God." It points to something beyond this world.  It is a kind of prophetic humor.

6) Humor deepens our relationship with God
One of the best ways of thinking about a relationship with God is a close, personal relationship or an intimate friendship.  In that light, our relationship to God - like any relationship - can use humor from time to time.  It's okay to be playful with God and accept the idea that God may want to be playful with us.
In Jewish tradition, there is the notion of a playful or loving God.  Many rabbis tell the story of God braiding Eve's hair in the garden, like someone who would help a bride. This is a charming and playful image of a loving God.

I hope this makes you smile. I am continuing with a short and not so serious series on humor and happiness after a much needed vacation. And, yes, I laughed out loud a lot on my vacation.  And it was in Bali.  Here are the next two ways that humor works in the spiritual life.

3) Humor can help us recognize reality
It can get right to the point, and it puts things in perspective.  “Preach the gospel at all times.  Use words when necessary.” (St. Francis of Assisi). That’s clever and even funny, and it’s also a profound truth.

Jesus often silenced his opponents with clever answers and humorous retorts.  When he was asked whether his followers should pay the tradition Roman tax, he had a zinger.  His opponents were aiming to set up a trap.  If he said yes, he would have been encouraging his fellow Jews to accept the Romans overlords.  If he said no, he would have been guilty of sedition.  So he simply said, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's." It isn't too hard to imagine his onlookers smiling at this clever response and his opponents realizing that he had escaped their trap.

Humor - an amusing saying, a clever response, or a funny story - can be effective for truth telling where a lengthy argument or discussion simply cannot.  "Humor makes every message stick, whether it's the silly ad that you never forget of the joke that hammers home some important spiritual truth." (Margaret Silf)

4) Humor speaks truth to power  
A witty remark is a time honored way to challenge the puffed up, the pompous, and the powerful.  Jesus was a master at deploying humor, exposing and defusing the arrogance of the some of the religious authorities of his day with clever parables and amusing sallies. 

Here is a story that humor is a weapon in the battle against the pride that infects most of us and often infects our religious communities.  A friend's mother was in the hospital at the same time the local bishop was.  After his operation, the bishop went around room to room visiting all the patients.  When he visited my friend's mother, who was recovering from a difficult surgery, he said, unctuously, "Well dear, I know exactly how you feel."

And she replied, "Really? Did you have a hysterectomy too?"

The mother and the bishop became friends.  After she died, the bishop was invited to preside at her funeral, and he retold the story.  He had learned to take himself not so seriously.